To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #3) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: To Green Angel Tower
Series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #3
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 1374
Words: 532K
Publish: 1993

Well, THAT was a chunkster of a book and I loved every second of it too. You know you’ve hit gold when you can read over 1300 pages and enjoy it all. This was slow paced but well done and I was never bored. It really helped my mindset knowing I had no other books to read and review for the rest of January. I just read this when I felt like it and let it soak into me, like a fine mist.

I had also forgotten the “catch”. I knew that there was a catch, but I just couldn’t remember what it was until it was revealed. Man, re-reading is great! By the by, the catch is that Ineluki (the disembodied spirit who is the villain) is going to possess King Elias’s body and rule Osten Ard eternally. He needed the 3 swords to complete the ritual, hence the prophecy about gathering the 3 Swords, and hence the name of this trilogy.

Everything comes together in the last 100-200 pages. Which considering the page count overall, is really rushing things at the end. At the same time, 200 pages is almost a full novel by itself, so it’s not really rushed at all. It was a very odd juxtaposition to be in. Feeling rushed and yet realizing it wasn’t rushed one tiny bit. I also liked how Williams focused on the emotions of his various characters near the end and how Simon’s decision (Simon has been one of the main male protagonists from the beginning) to NOT hate Ineluku helped bring about Ineluki’s downfall. In modern Yugioh parliance, The Power of Friendship wins the day, hahahahahaa.

Overall though, this whole trilogy was never about the ending, but about the journey getting to that ending. I guess you have to be in a certain mindset to truly appreciate this trilogy and I got lucky enough to be there this time around and loved every second, every meandering side quest, etc. One more thing I liked this time is that knowing there is now more Osten Ard related stories, I paid attention to some of the details about the elder races and I hope that pays off when I read those books. The Niskies, the Dwarrows, the Navigator’s Children, they held the promise of more and were not just one off names, because I know there is more to come. That aspect really made this a fuller reading than my previous times. I also suspect that once I read the later (and newer) Osten Ard books that when I inevitably re-read this trilogy again I’ll be able to appreciate small things in a whole new light. I pity people who don’t re-read, because they’ll never get to have an experience like that. Sure, they will read more new-to-them books, but my reading experience will be deeper, fuller and more satisfying. What more can you ask for?

Finally, I’d like to talk about the cover and the artwork. To Green Angel Tower was released in hardback and it had wraparound art. When it was released in paperback, it was too big and had to be split into two volumes, hence you’ll sometimes see TGAT Part I or Part II. Each of those paperbacks had one half of the original cover, which I think is great, because how many of us turn our books around to see the cover going all the way around? Not me! But the cover I chose as my featured image only shows one half of the hardcover. Michael Whelan is the artist and man, can he do drawings or what? The first picture is the original hardcover in all its wraparound glory. The characters on the left are Simon and Miriamelle (who are the young protagonists of the series) and on the right we have Jiriki and his sister Aditu, who are Sithi (elves, kind of) who help the humans against Ineluki, who was once a Sithi himself.

This second picture is the original artwork by Whelan and is for sale on his website. I have actually given some serious thought about buying the whole trilogy but $200 is something I need to give some thought to and not buy spur of the moment.

And with that, I bid you adieu until tomorrow’s post which will feature more wonderful cover love :-D

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

The story begins with the forces of Prince Josua Lackhand rallied at the Stone of Farewell, where the icy hand of the Storm King Ineluki has yet to take a deathgrip on the land. The remaining members of the League of the Scroll have also gathered at the Stone in hopes of unraveling an ancient prophecy. If deciphered, it could reveal to Josua and his army the only means of striking down the unslayable Storm King.

After Simon/Seoman Snowlock and Binabik have their reunion, they come to the realization that Memory – one of the three Great Swords recognized as being key to defeating the Storm King – is one and the same with Bright-Nail, old King John’s sword that was buried with him not three years previously. The trouble is, the grave of King John Presbyter lies in the shadow of the Hayholt, the stronghold of King Elias, and between the Stone of Farewell and Hayholt marches the army Elias has sent to besiege the defenders.

Meanwhile, Miriamele, Elias’s daughter who has joined Josua’s cause, is an unhappy prisoner on the ship of a lascivious and ambitious lordling to whom she has surrendered her virtue knowing only too late of his true nature. Another princess, Maegwin of Hernystir, falls deeper into madness, leading her people in a seemingly futile resistance against Elias’s allies who have conquered her kingdom, and deep in the ancient forest of Aldheorte, the immortal Sithi are mustering for a final conflict.

While Josua and his army must make a final stand to try to delay the forces of King Elias, Simon embarks upon a quest to Hayholt Castle to try to obtain the last of the three legendary swords and use their hidden magics to defeat The Storm King Ineluki and restore peace to Osten Ard once and for all.

• To Green Angel Tower (2003 Review)

• To Green Angel Tower (2011 Review)

Dune (Dune Chronicles #1) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Dune
Series: Dune Chronicles #1
Author: Frank Herbert
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 604
Words: 206K
Publish: 1965

Technically, this is the Deluxe Edition released in 2019. I did a “Book Catch” post when I received it for Christmas the year after it was released. The reasons it is “deluxe” is because it has new (delicious!) cover art, some maps and stuff and then some blatherings by Herbert’s son Brian. Brian has blathered on in other previous editions of Dune, mainly because he’s not man enough to write something successful like Dune so he’s getting by on daddy’s coat tails. In the older editions, Brian did an “Afterwards” where he self-promoted the new Dune stuff he and that no-good lousy pathetic Kevin J Anderson co-wrote along with teasing about Dune 7, the mythical book Frank was going to write to finish up the Dune Chronicles, but died before that happened. Baby Herbert and KJ(ack)A(ss) wrote Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune and both sucked donkieballz. I compared this “new” Forward to that older Afterwards and the only difference is that Baby Herbert adds a paragraph talking about the upcoming new Dune movies (Dune: Part I and Dune: Part II) as well as various games coming (Dune Imperium I believe, which Spalanz has talked about extensively) out soon. What a fething loser, can’t even write a new Foreward, how pathetic is that?

And enough of that! Onward to the good stuff.

This is my fourth “Official” read through of Dune. Down at the end of the review, under my avatar, you’ll see links to the previous three reviews. However, like many of my favorite books here on my blog, I read and re-read this book many times before I started recording my reviews. I think I was 14 or 15 when I first read Dune. I saw a paperback at the library and it had the atrocious movie cover of the 1984 movie, but to teenager me, it looked awesome (and while I abominate that movie as a “Dune” movie, I like it well enough on its own) and when I read it, the scope just blew me away. Then when I was a bit older I found out the library had the rest of the Dune Chronicles in hardcover and I devoured them, even while not necessarily understanding all that was going on. But based on my reading habits as a teen, I suspect I read Dune three times between 1993 and 2000, which is when I began recording when I read books. So this is probably my 7^th time reading it, possibly my 8^th and I still love it and think it is a complete and utter 5star book. It doesn’t get much better than this.

This is not an action book. There is the fight scene between Paul and Jamis when Paul and his mother are escaping to the desert and the dubious safety of the Fremen, but it is no more than a couple of paragraphs. There is also the fight scene near the end of the book between Paul and his cousin Feyd-Rautha Harkonnon but once again, only a couple of paragraphs long. Any of the battle scenes between the Fremen and smugglers or the Sardakaur are only given the broad brushstroke treatment. If you read much of Herbert, you will come to discover that he doesn’t like action scenes. He prefers things to happen off page and then just state that they happened. That proclivity isn’t as apparent here, but the roots of that mindset are shown for those who are looking. I’ve noted that before, but I think it bears proclaiming because of how the damnable new movies show the stories. There is lots of action shown in those that are simply glossed over in the book. Dune is not a simple adventure story.

I hesitate to say the following, and I’ll explain why after. Dune is a thinking man’s story. I don’t like saying that because it smacks of literary snobbery and the kind of people who think absolute garbage writing is the best. I despise literary types, who wouldn’t know a good story if it grabbed them by the throat and choked them to death. To them, the story is the least important part of a book. A “good” book is one that either preaches what they are preaching, or is one that they can shoehorn in their own despicable baby killing world view and try to destroy everything good and decent. They are the kind of people who read a book and then try to tell everyone “what it really means” no matter what is patently obvious or even stated by the author himself. They are the militant vegetarians of the book world. But vegetarians have some very good points to make when it comes to health and it would behoove most Americans to listen to them more. And thus it is with Frank Herbert and Dune. The story is a good story AND Herbert brings up many different aspects of humanity and sets forth his thoughts on the issues. It’s not that he’s baldly pontificating and denigrating everyone who disagrees with him, but he’s putting forth ideas and letting the reader decide how deep they want to follow that rabbit trail he has exposed to their view. Herbert won’t be put into just one box.

He doesn’t do this through just one avenue of thought, but through a multiplicity of story ideas. You have the government of the Landsraad and the Imperial House. You have the Bene Gesserit and their breeding program for the next step of human evolution. You have the Fremen and the Sardakaur as objects of war, both secular and religious. You have prophetic visions on one hand and manipulations of the space/time continuum on the other in the Spacing Guild. Paul himself brings most of these ideas into himself and we are given little hints that he is cogitating some very deep things, things which Herbert doesn’t write about in this book.

Each time I read Dune I have to decide if I’ll continue the Chronicles or treat it as a standalone. It really changes how you view this book depending on which option you go with. When I last read this in 2017, I stated that I wanted to read Dune as a standalone from then on. I can understand why I wrote that. It is very hard to start reading the Chronicles and not finish, as the story keeps pulling you deeper and deeper into the mythos. The problem is that it leads you into the horrendous finale by Frank’s son (the aforementioned Dune 7 duology linked in the first paragraph above) and nothing is worth that, absolutely nothing. Now, Frank did write a trilogy for Dune. Dune, Dune Messiah and then Children of Dune. God Emperor of Dune is a pivot point in the series and heads the reader off into a much broader scope of a story, for good or ill is up to you to decide. This time around I’m thinking I’ll read the trilogy, as I’ve never done that before.

This book is over 600 pages, but that is because there is a glossary and several appendixes. I HIGHLY recommend reading those and not skipping them. In fact, you might want to keep your finger in the glossary section so you can look up terms, names and places when you come across them in the story and don’t understand them. Do be aware, if you do that, there will be spoilers. Reading these is a good refresher course for any Dune lover and whether this is your first time or your eighth, you can’t go wrong with reading the them.

Finally, the cover to the Deluxe Edition. I love it, period. I can already tell this is going to be the cover love choice for December. It is as inevitable as Paul Muad’dib’s jihad ;-)

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides, ruler of the ocean world Caladan, is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to serve as fief ruler of the planet Arrakis. Although Arrakis is a harsh and inhospitable desert planet, it is of enormous importance because it is the only planetary source of melange, or the "spice", a unique and incredibly valuable substance that extends human youth, vitality and lifespan. It is also through the consumption of spice that Spacing Guild Navigators are able to effect safe interstellar travel through a limited ability to see into the future. The Emperor is jealous of the Duke's rising popularity in the Landsraad, the council of Great Houses, and sees House Atreides as a potential rival and threat. He conspires with House Harkonnen, the former stewards of Arrakis and the longstanding enemies of the Atreides, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but is compelled to obey the Emperor's orders anyway.

Leto's concubine Lady Jessica is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusively female group that pursues mysterious political aims and wields seemingly superhuman physical and mental abilities, such as the ability to control their bodies down to the cellular level, and also decide the sex of their children. Though Jessica was instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program, out of love for Leto she bore him a son, Paul. From a young age, Paul is trained in warfare by Leto's aides, the elite soldiers Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck. Thufir Hawat, the Duke's Mentat (human computers, able to store vast amounts of data and perform advanced calculations on demand), has instructed Paul in the ways of political intrigue. Jessica has also trained her son in Bene Gesserit disciplines.

Paul's prophetic dreams interest Jessica's superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She subjects Paul to a deadly test. She holds a poisoned needle, the gom jabbar, to his neck, ready to strike should he withdraw his hand from a box which creates extreme pain by nerve induction but causes no physical damage. This is to test Paul's ability to endure the pain and override his animal instincts, proving that he is, in Bene Gesserit eyes, human. Paul passes, enduring greater pain than any woman has ever been subjected to in the test.

Paul and his parents travel with their household to occupy Arrakeen, the capital on Arrakis. Leto learns of the dangers involved in harvesting the spice, which is protected by giant sandworms, and seeks to negotiate with the planet's indigenous Fremen people, seeing them as a valuable ally rather than foes. Soon after the Atreides' arrival, Harkonnen forces attack, joined by the Emperor's ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Leto is betrayed by his personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who delivers a drugged Leto to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries.

Yueh, who delivered Leto under duress, arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape into the desert. Duncan is killed helping them flee, and they are subsequently presumed dead in a sandstorm by the Harkonnens. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule, hoping Leto can kill Baron Harkonnen during their encounter. Piter kills Yueh, and the Baron narrowly avoids the gas (due to his defensive shield), which kills Leto, Piter, and the others in the room. The Baron forces Thufir to take over Piter's position by dosing him with a long-lasting, fatal poison and threatening to withhold the regular antidote doses. While he follows the Baron's orders, Thufir works secretly to undermine the Harkonnens.

Having fled into the desert, Paul is exposed to high concentrations of spice and has visions through which he realizes he has significant powers (as a result of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme). He foresees potential futures in which he lives among the Fremen before leading them on a holy war across the known universe. Paul reveals that Jessica's father is Baron Harkonnen, a secret kept from her by the Bene Gesserit.

Paul and Jessica traverse the desert in search of Fremen people. After being captured by a Fremen band, Paul and Jessica agree to teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known to the Fremen as the "weirding way" and are accepted into the community of Sietch Tabr. Paul proves his manhood by killing a Fremen man named Jamis in a ritualistic crysknife fight and chooses the Fremen name Muad'Dib, while Jessica opts to undergo a ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking and neutralizing the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes her unborn daughter Alia to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, who bears him a son he names Leto.

Two years pass, and Paul's powerful prescience manifests, which confirms to the Fremen that he is their prophesied "Lisan al-Gaib" messiah, a legend planted by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva. Paul embraces his father's belief that the Fremen could be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could consume the entire universe. Word of the new Fremen leader reaches both the Baron and the Emperor as spice production falls due to their increasingly destructive raids. The Baron encourages his brutish nephew Glossu "Beast" Rabban to rule with an iron fist, hoping the contrast with his shrewder nephew Feyd-Rautha will make the latter popular among the people of Arrakis when he eventually replaces Rabban. The Emperor, suspecting the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, sends spies to Arrakis. Thufir uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance.

Gurney, who survived the Harkonnen coup and became a smuggler, reunites with Paul and Jessica after a Fremen raid on his harvester. Believing Jessica to be a traitor, Gurney threatens to kill her but is stopped by Paul. Paul did not foresee Gurney's attack and concludes he must increase his prescience by drinking the Water of Life, which is fatal to males. Paul falls into unconsciousness for three weeks after drinking the poison, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and space: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, the ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program.

Paul senses the Emperor and the Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive. The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis. The Sardaukar seize a Fremen outpost, killing many, including young Leto, while Alia is captured and taken to the Emperor. Under cover of an electric storm, which shorts out the Sardaukar's defensive shields, Paul and the Fremen, riding giant sandworms, destroy the capital's natural rock fortifications with atomics and attack, while Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Fremen quickly defeat both the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops, killing Rabban in the process. Thufir is ordered to assassinate Paul, who gives him the opportunity to take anything that Thufir wishes of him. Thufir chooses to stab himself with the poisoned needle intended for Paul.

Paul faces the Emperor, threatening to destroy spice production forever unless Shaddam abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife fight, during which he cheats and tries to kill Paul with a poison spur in his belt. Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. Paul takes control of the Empire, but realizes that he cannot stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain.

• Dune (2011 Review)

• Dune (2016 Review)

• Dune (2017 Review)

The Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Stone of Farewell
Series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 727
Words: 268K
Publish: 1990

My fourth chunkster of a book this month and thankfully, NOT a dnf. I couldn’t have dealt with another dnf, I just couldn’t have. Tad Williams was writing massive books 15 years before Sanderson ever hit the scene. You go Tad, youdaman! Plus, this was even better in 2025 than when I read it in 2003 (technically, I read it at least twice before then, I just wasn’t recording my reading before 2000).

Ok, all the miscellaneous stuff is out of my system, time to get down to the nuts and bolts of this review.

I liked this. A lot. In fact, I liked this 5stars worth. Now, for any of you other reviewers out there who indiscriminately hand out fivestars, or even fourstars, like candy, ie, your average rating is 4 or above (and you are a bad reviewer if that is the case because it means you have no discriminating taste. You are a mindless bookivore), let’s put this in perspective. Up to this point, in the entire year of 2025, I have had SIX 5star reads. That is because I have high standards and I’m flipping proud of that. An author has to work to get a 5star from me. I don’t have a gold standard when it comes to books, I have the Bookstooge Standard. And Tad Williams, with The Stone of Farewell, has totally earned that 5star rating from me.

Unlike this month’s earlier The Resolve of Immortal Flesh, the characters in Farewell come across as real people, as fleshed out individuals, not just a set of characteristics with a name tacked on the cardboard they have for a chest. Now, don’t ask me HOW to do that, because I’m not an author, but as a dedicated reader, I can spot the difference a mile away. Even while having 3-4 different storylines going on at the same time, with tons of characters, I was never once tripping over who was who or thinking to myself “ok, who is this person again?” I am coming to realize that when I read a series, or a big book, that characters matter to me. In shorter books, or novellas, the Idea can be enough to carry things along, but in a chunkster of a book in a chunkster of a series, well, Characters Count.

Count Von Count knows that Characters Count!

The next important part is the story itself. Williams takes his time, as he did in the previous book The Dragonbone Chair, to slowly unspool events. I never felt like things were happening deus ex machina. He also balances the various threads in the story just right. We get enough of each story line to fill in what is needed and to set up what we are about to read in another story line. In that balancing act, much like with the characters, I once again never felt lost or confused or had any trouble remembering how the storylines were tying together. It felt like a wonderfully woven tapestry where you could appreciate each thread line or step back and appreciate the whole, as both were done with a deft touch.

Now you know, the talent and skill that Williams displays with this book, and with the whole Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, isn’t something that happened overnight. He didn’t write up some garbage, release it on Kindle Direct and then claim that he was a published author and then go on to demand that everyone pay him attention because he was “published”. Even talented people need to practice and increase their skill. Williams’ final products showcase this and I for one, as a discriminating reader with taste and standards, appreciate the living daylights out of it. The more so because I didn’t have to wade though his pile of unpublishable garbage. Writers, take note. Keep your crappy garbage in the drawer where it belongs and don’t inflict it on us, we don’t deserve that.

The synopsis below is once again so full that if you read it, you really won’t need to read the book itself if epic fantasy isn’t your bailiwick. It is mine though, so I know at some point I’ll be reading this trilogy again. I can’t think of any higher praise...

★★★★★

From Fandom.com

Simon, the Sitha Jiriki, and soldier Haestan are honored guests in the mountaintop city of the diminutive Qanuc trolls. But Sludig - whose Rimmersgard folk are the Quanuc's ancient enemies - and Simon's troll friend Binabik are not so well treated; Binabik's people hold them both captive, under sentence of death. An audience with the Herder and Huntress, rulers of the Qanuc, reveals that Binabik is being blamed not only for deserting his tribe, but for failing to fulfill his vow of marriage to Sisqi, youngest daughter of the reigning family. Simon begs Jiriki to intercede, but the Sitha has obligations to his own family, and will not in any case interfere with trollish justice. Shortly before the executions, Jiriki departs for this home.

Although Sisqi is bitter about Binabik's seeming fickleness, she cannot stand to see him killed. With Simon and Haestan, she arranges a rescue of the two prisoners but as they seek a scroll from Binabik's master's cave which will give them the information necessary to find a place named the Stone of Farewell - which Simon has learned of in a vision - they are recaptured by the angry Qanuc leaders. But Binabik's master's death-testament confirms the troll's story of his absence, and its warnings finally convince the Herder and the Huntress that there are indeed dangers to all the land which they have not understood. After some discussion, the prisoners are pardoned and Simon and his companions are given permission to leave Yiqanuc and take the powerful sword Thorn to exiled Prince Josua. Sisqi and other trolls will accompany them as far as the base of the mountains.

Meanwhile, Josua and a small band of followers have escaped the destruction of Naglimund and are wandering through the Aldheorte Forest, chased by the Storm King's Norns. They must defend themselves against not only arrows and spears but dark magic, but at last they are met by Geloe, the forest woman, and Leleth, the mute child Simon had rescued from the terrible hounds of Stormspike. The stange pair lead Josua's party through the forest to a place that once belonged to the Sithi, where the Norns dare not pursue them for fear of breaking the ancient Pact between the sundered kin. Geloe then tells them they should travel on to another place even more sacred to the Sithi, the same Stone of Farewell to which she had directed Simon in the vision she sent him.

Miriamele, daughter of High King Elias and niece of Josua, is traveling south in hope of finding allies for Josua among her relatives in the courts of Nabban; she is accompanied by the dissolute monk Cadrach. They are captured by Count Streawe of Perdruin, a cunning and mercenary man, who tells Miriamele he is going to deliver her to an unnamed person to whom he owes a debt. To Miriamele's joy, this mysterious personage turns out to be a friend, the priest Dinivan, who is secretary to Lector Ranessin, the leader of Mother Church. Dinivan is secretly a member of the League of the Scroll, and hopes that Miriamele can convince the lector to denounce Elias and his counselor, the renegade priest Pryrates. Mother Church is under siege, not only from Elias, who demands the church not interfere with him, but from the Fire dancers, religious fanatics who claim the Storm King comes to them in dreams. Ranessin listens to what Miriamele has to say and is very troubled.

Simon and his companions are attacked by snow-giants on their way down from the high mountains, and the soldier Haestan and many trolls are killed. Later, as he broods on the injustice of life and death, Simon inadvertently awakens the Sitha mirror Jiriki had given him as a summoning charm, and travels on the Dream Road to encounter the first the Sitha matriarch Amerasu, then the terrible Norn Queen Utuk'ku. Amerasu is trying to understand the schemes of Utuk'ku and the Storm King, and is traveling the Dream Road in search of both wisdom and allies.

Josua and the remainder of his company at last emerge from the forest onto the grasslands of the High Thrithing, where they are almost immediately captured by the nomadic clan led by March-Thane Fikolmij, who is the father of Josua's lover Vorzheva. Fikolmij begrudges the loss of his daughter, and after beating the prince severly, arranges a duel in which he intends that Josua should be killed; Fikolmij's plan fails and Josua survives. Fikolmij is then forced to pay off a bet by giving the prince's company horses. Josua is strongly affected the shame Vorzheva feels at seeing her people again, marries her in front of Fikolmij and the assembled clan. When Vorzheva's father gleefully announces that soldiers of King Elias are coming across the grasslands to capture them, the prince and his followers ride away east toward the Stone of Farewell.

In far off Hernystir, Maegwin is the last of her line. Her father the king and her brother have both been killed fighting Elias' pawn Skali, and she and her people have taken refuge in caves in the Grianspog Mountains. Maegwin has been troubled by strange dreams, and finds herself drawn into the old mines and caverns beneath the Grianspog. Count Eolair, her father's most trusted liege-man, goes in search of her, and together he and Maegwin enter the great underground city of Mezutu'a. Maegwin is convinced that the Sithi live there, and that they will come to the rescue of the Hernystiri as they did in the old days, but the only inhabitants they discover in the crumbling city are the dwarrows, a strange timid group of delvers distantly related to the immortals. The dwarrows, who are metalwrights as well as stonecrafters, reveal that the sword Minneyar that Josua's people seek is actually the blade known as Bright-Nail, which was buried with Prester John, father of Josua and Elias. This news means little to Maegwin, who is shattered to find that her dreams have brought her people no real assistance. She is also at least as troubled by what she considers her foolish love for Eolair, so she invents an errand for him - taking news of Minneyar and maps of dwarrows' diggings, which include tunnels below Elias' castle, the Hayholt, to Josua and his band of survivors. Eolair is puzzled and angry at being sent away, but goes.

Simon and Binabik and Sludig leave Sisqi and the other trolls at the base of the mountain and continue across the icy vastness of the White Waste. Just at the northern edge of the great forest, they find an old abbey inhabited by children and their caretaker, an older girl named Skodi. They stay the night, glad to be out of the cold, but Skodi proves to be more than she seems: in the darkness she traps three of them by witchcraft, then begins a ceremony in which she intends to invoke the Storm King and show him that she has captured the sword Thorn. One of the undead Red Hand appears because of Skodi's spell, but a child disrupts the ritual and brings up a monstrous swarm of diggers. Skodi and the children are killed, but Simon and the others escape, thanks largely to Binabik's fierce wolf Qantaqa. But Simon is almost mad from the mind-touch of the Red Hand, and rides away from his companions, crashing into a tree at last and striking himself senseless. He falls down a gulley, and Binabi and Sludig are unable to find him. At last, full of remorse, they take the sword Thorn and continue on toward the Stone of Farewell without him.

Several people besides Miriamele and Cadrach have arrived the lector's palace in Nabban. One of them is Josua's ally Duke Isgrimnur, who is searching for Miriamele. Another is Pryrates, who has come to bring Lector Ranessin an ultimatum from the king. The lector angrily denounces both Pryrates and Elias; the king's emissary walks out of the banquet, threatening revenge.

That night, Pryrates metamorphoses himself with a spell he has been given by the Storm King's servitors, and becomes a shadowy thing. He kills Dinivan and then brutally murders the lector. Afterward, he sets the halls aflame to cast suspicion on the Fire Dancers. Cadrach, who greatly fears Pryrates and has spent the night urging Miriamele to flee the lector's palace with him, finally knocks her senseless and drags her away. Isgrimnur finds the dying Dinivan, and is given a Scroll League token for the Wrannaman Tiamak and instructions to go the inn named Pelippa's Bowl in Kwantipul, a city of the edge of the marshes south of Nabban.

Tiamak, meanwhile, has received an earlier message from Dinivan and is on his way to Kwantipul, although his journey almost ends when he is attacked by a crocodile. Wounded and feverish, he arrives at Pelippa's Bowl at last and gets an unsympathetic welcome from the new landlady.

Miriamele awakens to find that Cadrach has smuggled her into the hold of a ship. While the monk has lain in drunken sleep, the ship has set sail. They are quickly found by Gan Itai, a Niskie, whose job is to keep the ship safe from the menacing aquatic creatures called kilpa. Although Gan Itai takes a liking to the stowaways, she nevertheless turns them over to the ship's master, Aspitis Preves, a young Nabbanai nobleman.

Far to the north, Simon has awakened from a dream in which he again heard the Sitha-woman Amerasu, and in which he has discovered that Ineluki the Storm King is her son. Simon is now lost and alone in the trackless, snow-covered Aldheorte Forest. He tries to use Jirki's mirror to summon help, but no one answers his plea. At last he sets out in what he hopes is the right direction, although he knows he has little chance of crossing the scores of leagues of winterbound woods alive. He ekes out a meager living on bugs and grass, but it seems only a question of whether he will first go completely mad or starve to death. He is finally saved by the appearance of Jiriki's sister Aditu, who has come in response to the mirror-summoning. She works a kind of traveling-magic that appears to turn winter into summer, and when it is finished, she and Simon enter the hidden Sithi stronghold of Jao e-Tinukai'i. It is a place of magical beauty and timelessness. When Jiriki welcomes him, Simon's joy is great; moments later, when he is taken to see Likimeya and Shima'onari, parents of Jiriki and Aditu, that joy turns to horror. The leaders of the Sithi say that since no mortal has ever been permitted in secret Jao e-Tinukai'i, Simon must stay there forever.

Josua and his company are pursued into the northern grasslands, but when they turn at last in desperate resistance, it is to find these latest pursuers are not Elias' soldiers, but Thrithings-folk who have deserted Fikolmij's clan to throw in their lot with the prince. Together, and with Geloe leading the way, they at last reach Sesuad'ra, the Stone of Farewell.

• Stone of Farewell (2003 Review)

• Stone of Farewell (2011 Review)

Bloodlines (MHI #9) 4.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Bloodlines
Series: MHI #9
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 307
Words: 118K
Publish: 2021

Owen Pitt has made it back from the Nightmare Dimension, Julie Pitt has rescued their son and now life goes on. Only they both know Asag the god of chaos is still out there, just waiting to destroy them in some way. Because they aren’t damned woke pansies, they decide to get proactive. They know that a wardstone, a creation of Isaac Newton, will destroy such a being and they set out to find one. They do, only to find out that a LOT of other people are also interested in it, and not just other monster hunters either. The stone is stolen and Stricken gets involved. He makes a deal with the MCB and Agent Franks, only to shaft EVERYONE. So the MCB and MHI team up to, only for Stricken to still trick them all, again. That man is pure evil. The book ends with Pitt, Chad Gardener’s daughter and Agent Franks working with Stricken in a Court of the Fay to prevent two other cosmic entities from swallowing up Earth.

Oh my goodness.

Stricken is pure evil. Even with him knowing what he knows, somebody should have just put a bullet through his head. You do not work with evil, you destroy it.

The thing I enjoyed most about this story was the supernatural bounty hunter (the Drekavac) hired to retrieve the wardstone when it was stolen. He was a Puritan judge who sold his soul to the devil to do evil, for immortality. He rides a demon horse motorcycle and uses a plasma blunderbuss. How cool is that. He has 13 lives and each time he gets stronger. On his 12^th incarnation he was 30feet tall and shrugging off missiles. The battle between him and MHI and Agent Franks was fantastic. It epitomized why I enjoy the battles in MHI so much. What I enjoyed EVEN MORE was right at the end. Stricken thinks he has blackmailed the Drekavac into doing his will only for it to say it would rather suffer the worst fires of hell than submit to such a person as Stricken. It turns its back on Stricken and walks away. Not “quite” as good as a bullet to the head, but the next best thing :-D

I originally read this in 2022 and at the time thought MHI was just going to keep on going. Since then Larry Correia has announced there will be 2 or 3 more books in the main MHI series and then the story surrounding Owen Zastava Pitt will be over. That means the main MHI story franchise will be done with. I’m ok with that. I’d much rather Correia end things on a high note than keep on going until it becomes total garbage. I’m sure there will be more standalone MHI books or trilogies, co-authored. That should keep me in the good stuff for years to come :-D

★★★★✬

From the Publisher

In a business like monster hunting, it's all about setting priorities.

The chaos god Asag has been quiet since the destruction of the City of Monsters, but Monster Hunter International knows that he is still out there somewhere—plotting, waiting for his chance to unravel reality.

When Owen and the MHI team discover that one of Isaac Newton's Ward Stones is being auctioned off by Reptoids who live deep beneath Atlanta, they decide to steal the magical superweapon and use it to destroy Asag once and for all. But before the stone can be handed off, it is stolen by a mysterious thief with ties to MHI and the Vatican's Secret Guard.

It's a race against time, the Secret Guard, a spectral bounty hunter, and a whole bunch of monsters to acquire the Ward Stone and use it against Asag. For as dangerous as the chaos god is, there is something much older—and infinitely more evil—awakening deep in the jungles of South America.

• Monster Hunter Bloodlines (2022 Review)

• All of My “MHI” Reviews

The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle #2) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Tombs of Atuan
Series: Earthsea Cycle #2
Author: Ursula LeGuin
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy / Middle Grade
Pages: 117
Words: 46K
Publish: 1971

Another wonderful coming of age story that is so different from A Wizard of Earthsea and yet tells a story that I love.

Most of the time, when an author tells a completely different tale in a series, I have issues with it. I usually want more of the same, more of the familiar, more of what I enjoyed in the previous book. Thankfully, LeGuin’s skill is such that she can change everything and yet keep the essentials that I loved and thus make me love this new creation.

The characters, the land and the perspective have all changed but what didn’t change was the style. We still get the world building with just a few brief sentences. Whole histories are conveyed in less than a paragraph. Peoples’ characters fleshed out with the perfectly chosen word. Simplicity is still LeGuin’s choice here and it continues to work very well. While the story appears to be about Tennar the young girl, it is just as much about the Ring of Erreth Akbe, which when the broken pieces are found and united, will bring peace to the land. It takes real skill to be able to tell both stories at the same time without one overshadowing the other.

I am also very happy that Tennar’s story ends on a happy note. She has left everything behind her, going to a new land, to a people she doesn’t know, with a man who has told her he can’t stay with her, but she will be given protection and teaching by Ogion the wizard and have wealth should she want it. The blackness of LeGuin’s soul hadn’t yet destroyed everything good…

I was hoping to showcase the cover for the first edition, which was another woodcut style drawing, but sadly, every version I could find had this huge “Award” on it, since it won several childrens’ awards. So I’m choosing to go with the Bantam Spectra cover from the mid 80’s. This was the copy my local library had I believe. I’m going to include the covers for each book because I want a complete collection and I have zero idea what I’ll showcase for the next book’s cover.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

The story follows a girl named Tenar, born on the Kargish island of Atuan. Born on the day that the high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan died, she is believed to be her reincarnation. Tenar is taken from her family when she was five years old and goes to the Tombs.[14] Her name is taken from her in a ceremony, and she is referred to as "Arha", or the "eaten one",[24] after being consecrated to the service of the "Nameless Ones" at the age of six with a ceremony involving a symbolic sacrifice.[28] She moves into her own tiny house, and is given a eunuch servant, Manan, with whom she develops a bond of affection.

Arha's childhood and youth are lonely; her only friends are Manan and Penthe, a priestess her own age. She is trained in her duties by Thar and Kossil, the priestesses of the two other major deities. Thar tells her of the undertomb and the labyrinth beneath the Tombs, teaching her how to find her way around them. She tells of the treasure hidden within the labyrinth, which wizards from the archipelago have tried to steal. When Arha asks about the wizards, Thar tells her that they are unbelievers who can work magic. When she turns fourteen, Arha assumes all the responsibilities of her position, becoming the highest ranked priestess in the Tombs. She is required to order the death of prisoners sent to the Tombs by the God-King of the Kargad lands; she has them killed by starvation, an act which haunts her for a long time. After Thar dies of old age, Arha becomes increasingly isolated: although stern, Thar had been fair to her. Kossil despises Arha and sees the Nameless Ones as a threat to her power.

Arha's routine is disrupted by her discovery of the wizard Ged (the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea) in the undertomb. She traps him in the labyrinth by slamming the door on him, and through a peephole sees him unsuccessfully attempt to open the door with a spell.[29] Trapped in the labyrinth, Ged eventually collapses out of exhaustion, and Arha has him chained up while debating what to do with him. After questioning him, she learns that he has come to the Tombs for the long-lost half of the ring of Erreth-Akbe, a magical talisman broken centuries before, necessary for peace in Earthsea.[14] The other half had come into his possession by pure chance, and a dragon later told him what it was. Arha is drawn to him as he tells her of the outside world, and keeps him prisoner in the tombs, bringing him food and water.[30] However, Kossil learns of Ged's existence, forcing Arha to promise that Ged will be sacrificed to the Nameless Ones; however, she realizes that she cannot go through with it. She instructs Manan to dig a false grave underground, while she herself takes Ged to hide in the treasury of the Tombs.

Arha and Kossil have a public falling out, in which Kossil says that nobody believes in the Nameless Ones anymore. In response, Arha curses her in the name of the Nameless Ones. Realizing that Kossil will now be determined to kill her, she heads to the labyrinth and sees Kossil uncovering the false grave. Evading her, Arha goes to the treasury and confesses everything to Ged, who has found the other half of Erreth-Akbe's ring in the treasury. He tells Arha that she must either kill him or escape with him, and says that the Nameless Ones demand her service, but give nothing and create nothing in return. He tells her his true name, Ged, in return for the trust she has shown him. They escape together, though Manan, who has come looking for Arha, falls into a pit in the labyrinth and is killed when he attempts to attack Ged. The tombs begin to collapse in on themselves; Ged holds them off until they leave. Arha reverts to calling herself Tenar as she and Ged travel to the coast where his boat is hidden. While waiting for the tide, she feels an urge to kill Ged for destroying her life, but realizes while gazing at him that she has no anger left. Ged and Tenar sail to Havnor, where they are received in triumph.

The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #1) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Dragonbone Chair
Series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #1
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 824
Words: 288K
Publish: 1988

Ahhhhh, this was good. Williams was pushing the page count for epic fantasy while Sanderson was still scarfing down peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches. This is yet another of those books I grew up on and am still enjoying re-reading.

I had forgotten just how vexing and whiny Simon (the main character) starts out as. He’s a 14 or 15 year old boy who is a daydreamer and man, I wanted to slap him so many times. The good thing is that he doesn’t automagically just “change” and become a Gary Stu. He has some horrible experiences and you can see him growing through those experiences. He doesn’t become another person, he slowly changes. Williams knows how to write characters and it is a joy to watch.

There was so much detail I had forgotten since I last read this in 2011 that it “almost” felt like a new book. I like that feeling of knowing the general outline of the story (which is comforting to me) and mixing it with that new feeling (which is exciting). Having them both at the same time is just great. When I was done with the book I seriously considered just writing a review consisting of “I loved this!” with a synopsis from Wikipedia. And really, if you parse down everything I’ve said so far, that’s the essence here :-)

Not everything by Williams connects with me. But when it does, it’s electric. I never even noticed how long the page count was until I started this review. I just knew I was enjoying the story the entire 800+ pages and it never dragged or was “world build’y” to pad things out. That’s success in my books!

The main reason I am reading this Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy again is because Williams has recently finished up a sequel series, “Last King of Osten Ard”. I want to read that but am concerned that I will need a recent read of MST to know what’s going on. Considering how well this went, I don’t think that is going to be a problem at all!

★★★★★

From Fandom.com

For eons the Hayholt belonged to the immortal Sithi, but they had fled the great castle before the onslaught of Mankind. Men have long ruled this greatest of strongholds, and the rest of Osten Ard as well. Prester John, High King of all the nations of men, is its most recent master; after an early life of triumph and glory, he has presided over decades of peace from his skeletal throne, the Dragonbone Chair.

Simon, an awkward fourteen year old, is one of the Hayholt's scullions. His parents are dead, his only real family the chamber maids and their stern mistress, Rachel the Dragon. When Simon can escape his kitchen-work he steals away to the cluttered chambers of Doctor Morgenes, the castle's eccentric scholar. When the old man invites Simon to be his apprentice, the youth is overjoyed - until he discovers that Morgenes prefers teaching reading and writing to magic.

Soon ancient King John dies, so Elias, the older of the two sons, prepares to take the throne. Josua, Elias' somber brother, nicknamed Lackhand because of a disfiguring wound, argues harshly with the king-to-be about Pryrates, the ill-reputed priest who is one of Elias' closest advisers. The brothers' feud is a cloud of foreboding over castle and country.

Elias' reign as king starts well, but a drought comes and plague strikes several of the nations of Osten Ard. Soon outlaws roam the roads and people begin to vanish from isolated villages. The order of things is breaking down, and the king's subjects are losing confidence in his rule, but nothing seems to bother the monarch or his friends. As rumblings of discontent begin to be heard throughout the kingdom, Elias' brother Josua disappears - to plot rebellion, some say.

Elias' misrule upsets many, including Duke Isgrimnur of Rimmersgard and Count Eolair, an emissary from the western country of Hernystir. Even King Elias' own daughter Miriamele is uneasy, especially about the scarlet-robed Pryrates, her father's trusted adviser.

Meanwhile Simon is muddling along as Morgenes' helper. The two become fast friends despite Simon's mooncalf nature and the doctor's refusal to teach him anything resembling magic. During one of his meanderings through the secret byways of the labyrinthine Hayholt, Simon discovers a secret passage and is almost captured there by Pryrates. Eluding the priest, he enters a hidden underground chamber and finds Josua, who is being held captive for use in some terrible ritual planned by Pryrates. Simon fetches Doctor Morgenes and the two of them free Josua and take him to the doctor's chambers, where Josua is sent to freedom down a tunnel that leads beneath the ancient castle. Then, as Morgenes is sending off messenger birds bearing news of what has happened to mysterious friends, Pryrates and the king's guard come to arrest the doctor and Simon. Morgenes is killed fighting Pryrates, but his sacrifice allows Simon to escape into the tunnel.

Half-maddened, Simon makes his way through the midnight corridors beneath the castle, which contain the runes of the old Sithi palace. He surfaces in the graveyard beyond the town wall, then is lured by the light of a bonfire. He witnesses a weird scene: Pryrates and King Elias engaged in a ritual with black-robed, white-faced creatures. The pale things give Elias a strange gray sword of disturbing power, named Sorrow. Simon flees.

Life in the wilderness on the edge of the great forest Aldheorte is miserable, and weeks later Simon is nearly dead from hunger and exhaustion, but still far away from his destination, Josua's northern keep at Naglimund. Going to a forest cot to beg, he finds a strange being caught in a trap - one of the Sithi, a race thought to be mythical, or at least long-vanished. The cotsman returns, but before he can kill the helpless Sitha, Simon strikes him down. The Sitha, once freed, stops only long enough to fire a white arrow at Simon, then disappears. A new voice tells Simon to take the white arrow, that it is a Sithi gift.

The dwarfish newcomer is a troll named Binabik, who rides a great gray wolf. He tells Simon he was only passing by, but now he will accompany the boy to Naglimund. Simon and Binabik endure many adventures and strange events on the way to Naglimund: they come to realize that they have fallen afoul of a threat greater than merely a king and his counselor deprived of their prisoner. At last, when they find themselves pursued by unearthly white hounds who wear the brand of Stormspike, a mountain of evil reputation in the far north, they are forced to head for the shelter of Geloe's forest house, taking with them a pair of travelers they have rescued from the hounds. Geloe, a blunt-spoken forest woman with a reputation as a witch, confers with them and agrees that somehow the ancient Norns, embittered relatives of the Sithi, have become embroiled in the fate of Prester John's kingdom.

Pursuers human and otherwise threaten them on their journey to Naglimund. After Binabik is shot with an arrow, Simon and one of the rescued travelers, a servant girl, must struggle on through the forest. They are attacked by a shaggy giant and saved only by the appearance of Josua's hunting party.

The prince brings them to Naglimund, where Binabik's wounds are cared for, and where it is confirmed that Simon has stumbled into a terrifying swirl of events. Elias is coming soon to besiege Josua's castle. Simon's serving-girl companion was Princess Miriamele traveling in disguise, fleeing her father, whom she fears has gone mad under Pryrates' influence. From all over the north and elsewhere, frightened people are flocking to Naglimund and Josua, their last protection against a mad king.

Then, as the prince and others discuss the coming battle, a strange old Rimmersman named Jarnauga appears in the council's meeting hall. He is a member of the League of the Scroll, a circle of scholars and initiates of which Morgenes and Binabik's master were both part, and he brings more grim news. Their enemy, he says, is not just Elias: the king is receiving aid from Ineluki the Storm King, who had once been a prince of the Sithi - but who has been dead for five centuries, and whose bodiless spirit now rules the Norns of Stormspike Mountain, pale relatives of the banished Sithi.

It was the terrible magic of the gray sword Sorrow that caused Ineluki's death - that, and mankind's attack on Sithi. The League of the Scroll believes that Sorrow has been given to Elias as the first step in some incomprehensible plan of revenge, a plan that will bring the earth beneath the heel of the undead Storm king. The only hope comes from a prophetic poem that seems to suggest that "three swords" might help turn back Ineluki's powerful magic.

One of the swords is the Storm King's Sorrow, already in the hands of their enemy, King Elias. Another is the Rimmersgard blade Minneyar, which was also once at the Hayholt, but whose whereabouts are now unknown. The third is Thorn, black sword of King John's greatest knight, Sir Camaris. Jarnauga and others think they have traced it to a location in the frozen north. On this slim hope, Josua sends Binabik, Simon, and several soldiers off in search of Thorn, even as Naglimund prepares for siege.

Others are affected by the growing crisis. Princess Miriamele, frustrated by her uncle Josua's attempts to protect her, escapes Naglimund in disguise, accompanied by the mysterious monk Cadrach. She hopes to make her way to southern Nabban and plead with her relatives there to aid Josua. Old Duke Isgrimnur, at Josua's urging, disguises his own very recognizable features and follows after to rescue her. Tiamak, a swamp-dwelling Wrannaman scholar, receives a strange message from his old mentor Morgenes that tells of bad times coming and hints that Tiamak has a part to play. Maegwin, a daughter of the king of Hernystir, watches helplessly as her own family and country are drawn into a whirlpool of war by the treachery of High King Elias.

Simon and Binabik and their company are ambushed by Ingen Jegger, huntsman of Stormspike, and his servants. They are saved only the reappearance of the Sitha Jiriki, whom Simon had saved from the cotsman's trap. When he learns of their quest, Jiriki decides to accompany them to Urmsheim mountain, legendary abode of one of the great dragons, in search of Thorn.

By the time Simon and the others reach the mountain, King Elias has brought his besieging army to Josua's castle at Naglimund, and though the first attacks are repulsed, the defenders suffer great losses. At last Elias' forces seem to retreat and give up the siege, but before the stronghold's inhabitants can celebrate, a weird storm appears on the northern horizon, bearing down on Naglimund. The storm is the cloak under which Ineluki's own horrifying army of Norns and giants travels, and when the Red Hand, the Storm King's chief servants, thrown down Naglimund's gates, a terrible slaughter begins. Josua and a few other manage to flee the ruin of the castle. Before escaping into the great forest, Prince Josua curses Elias for his conscienceless bargain with the Storm King and swears that he will take their father's crown back.

Simon and his companions climb Urmsheim, coming through great dangers to discover the Uduntree, a titanic frozen waterfall. There they find Thorn in a tomblike cave. Before they can take the sword and make their escape, Ingen Jegger appears once more attacks with his troop of soldiers. The battle awakens Igjarjuk, the white dragon, who has been slumbering for years beneath the ice. Many on both sides are killed. Simon alone is left standing, trapped on the edge of a cliff; as the ice-worm bears down upon him, he lifts Thorn and swings it. The dragon's scalding black blood spurts over him as he is struck senseless.

Simon awakens in a cave on the troll mountain of Yiquanuc. Jiriki and Haestan, an Erkynlandish soldier, nurse him to health. Thorn has been rescued from Urmsheim, but Binabik is being held prisoner by his own people, along with Sludig the Rimmersman, under sentence of death. Simon himself has been scarred by the dragon's blood and a wide swath of his hair has turned white. Jiriki names him "Snowlock" and tells Simon that, for good or for evil, he has been irrevocably marked.

• Dragonbone Chair (2002 Review)

• Dragonbone Chair (2011 Review)

Monster Hunter Guardian (MHI #8) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Monster Hunter Guardian
Series: MHI #8
Author: Larry Correia & Sarah Hoyt
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 313
Words: 119K
Publish: 2019

I re-read this and THEN read my review from 2020 (link at the end of the post).

The only thing I would really change this time around is that I didn’t notice the “emotional” side of things like I did then. No idea why, but I never even noticed it and hadn’t remembered that aspect at all until I re-read my old review.

A marathon of a story about a mother saving her kidnapped son first from a demon who wants to auction him off to other demons and then second, from her own mother who is a superpowerful vampire. The action is almost non-stop and I loved it.

When I read this in 2020 I gave serious though to searching out Sarah Hoyt’s other works and seeing how her stuff compared to this collaboration. Unfortunately, most of her stuff seemed to be ongoing, abandoned or, according to reviews, “have that romance vibe”. Yeah, no thanks to all three of those. So I never investigated any more of her works and I’m still ok with that decision five years later.

★★★★☆

From MHI.Fandom.com & Bookstooge

While Owen and the other Monster Hunters are off in Russia fighting the big baddies, Julie (Own’s wife and former Shackleford) is in charge of running the skeleton crew of MHI. She’s also taking care of her dying grandfather and her newborn son.

She has a recruitment possibility but it goes sideways and turns out to be just a lure so a malevolent being can kill her grandfather and kidnap her son. Brother Death then contacts Julie and says he’ll trade her son for a powerful artifact he knows Julie is guarding, even though she told MHI it was destroyed. She reluctantly agrees but creates a backup plan to recover the item and her son if Brother Death double crosses her. He does. Julie ends up in Germany alone and with almost no weapons. She tracks down the group of cultists who took possession of the artifact only to find out that the kidnapping of her son and artifact were unrelated. In the process of recovering the artifact, Julie breaks about a bajillion german laws and the german version of MCB makes MCB look like a kind and benevolent grandfather.

Julie goes on the run. With the help of Management (the last dragon in existence), she finds a man who is a European Monster Advocate. She needs his help to track down a monster known for kidnapping children, who will hopefully then lead her to Brother Death. Turns out the Monster Advocate was killed years ago and his body taken over by the child killer monster. Julie kills it and lets Management into its computer system. This gets her an invite to an auction that Mr Death is holding, with her son being the main item on the agenda.

Julie heads out with a lawyer from Management. At the auction she becomes aware that her mother is there and wants Julie’s son to raise as her own (Julie’s mom is a nutjob of a super vampire). The auction goes bad and Julie shoots her way out. She rescues her son only to see him taken from her by her mother. With the lawyer’s help she escapes Brother Death.

Julie tracks her mom down and calls all the dregs of MHI to assault the mansion, along with the local branch of government monster hunters. They succeed against all odds and Julie has her son back. She also finds out that MHI is back from the Island.

With help from Owen and some of the other MHI Crew Julie finds out Brother Death’s real name and uses that to kill him. During all of this her Guardian marks have grown and she finds out that as the marks grow, her humanity will shrink until she ceases to be human. At which point she will become a monster herself.

• Monster Hunter Guardian (2020 Review)

• All of My “MHI” Reviews